Give your business a sporting chance
ARE YOU A HIGH- PERFORMANCE MANAGER? WHEN we talk about improving the performance of our business, we often drill into the sales and service teams. We look at how they engage with customers and look at individual performance around overall sales numbers, leads generated, average sale, etc. We focus on getting more from those in our team closest to the sale, because it is often more sales we are looking for. We also need to look at what else our management should be doing to drive greater levels of performance. THE GAME OF BUSINESS SPORTS can teach us a lot about driving team performance. The players in the team may be the most visible when on the field, but often the overall performance of the team will come back to the coaching staff and what happened off the field, or in business, when not in front of a customer.
Coaching staff analyse the team’s performance when last on the field, review decisions, carefully plan the training for each team member and provide focused feedback weekly to each player to get the most out of them. A healthy sports team also has players with various strengths, a strong bench and scouts constantly searching for the best new talent coming through the ranks. BUSINESS IS A BLOOD SPORT MANY businesses under price pressure from eroding margins, increasing regulations and higher customer expectations, and many operators find it hard to remain profitable. Add to this globalisation, digital disruption, lower costs of entry and displacement of many work types and we are going to face ongoing downward price pressures.
Businesses need to compete on quality of service. Competing on price alone leads to lower investment in services and many businesses suffering well over 50 per cent customer attrition annually, or hardly any repeat business at all. To combat this many companies are rightly turning to specialisation and upskilling their best workers. BETTER PEOPLE = BETTER SERVICE = LESS BLEEDING A RECENT USA- based survey on the services industry put “poor service” as the top reason for contracts not being renewed. It accounted for 55 per cent of cancellations. This leading cause of customer attrition single- handedly destroys business value due as we not only lose hard- won customers, we don’t build our base of recurring revenue. In service businesses where as much as 80 per cent of the cost base is your Human Resource, investing in their development and tools to support them is money well spent.
Retention of customers and staff goes straight to your bottom line. And it can be as simple as providing the following to your team.
The top reasons staff give maximise their retention are:
• Training – the more you put into an employee the more obligated they will be to return that favour;
• Rewards – appropriate and ancillary rewards;
• Professional development – provide opportunities to broaden capabilities and thinking;
• Hiring right to start with – hire for attitude and provide support; and
• Recognition – one study found 88 per cent of staff reporting appropriate praise from management “very or extremely motivating”, and more important than money in their decision to maintain that employment.
Staff turnover leads to customer turnover. Especially in unskilled, labour intensive businesses the cost of inductions, training and hiring of staff can impact your margins. Invest in and manage your team for performance and fend off price wars with high performing and highly engaged staff. that salaries